‘What is really happening in Lebanon?’
By Pepe Escobar ∙ The Real News Network ∙ May 14, 2008
Pepe Escobar explains clashes between US-backed government and Hezbollah-led opposition
Excerpt
So was this a coup d’etat? No. Sheikh Nasrallah was adamant. He said, I quote, “Had we wanted a coup, they”—government leaders—”would have woken up to find themselves in jail or thrown in the sea.” Hariri had the gall to call a press conference and say that his militia was not armed. The professor As’ad AbuKhalil, born in Lebanon, host of the Angry Arab Website, he commented dryly that if Hariri, I quote, “did not have his billions, he would still be in elementary school learning how to add and subtract.” As for Jumblatt, the so-called hero of the Cedar Revolution, he admitted he lost the battle and that he only wanted to ask Sheikh Nasrallah for, I quote, “protection.” So Hezbollah, they got in the streets what they couldn’t get politically—the actual means to veto shady government decisions in Lebanon.
